Really Rocket Science

About a week after Labor Day, ARINC introduced new Caribbean coverage for SKYLink, an in-flight broadband service for business jets:

The new Caribbean coverage area means users of the SKYLink network will be able to fly from Europe to North America, across the Caribbean, and on to Central and South America, without losing access to important e-mail or Internet applications. To encourage customers to take part in the coverage tests, ARINC Direct suspended roaming charges in the new region through July 21, 2008. Customer feedback was used to adjust satellite coverage and to map signal strength across the region.

The new coverage includes the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago; Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, northern Peru, northern Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana, and part of Surinam.

eXchange with service by SKYLink is the only communications system for business jets offering true broadband Internet speeds—as high as 3.5 Mbps to the aircraft. Customers have access to e-mail, corporate intranet (VPN), the Web, flat-rate Voice over IP (VoIP) global telephone service, and videoconferencing. eXchange also provides e-mail and data capability for personal Wi-Fi enabled smartphones in the cabin.

Really cool how Rockwell-Collins integrates it all:

Business travelers will experience real-time, two-way broadband connectivity with secure access to e-mail services, Internet browsing, access to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and options for Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service and videoconferencing. eXchange also enables data connectivity to select Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, such as RIM's Blackberry models 8320 and 8820, providing travelers with access to e-mail and other smartphone data services.

Thanks to the AMC-21 satellite's dedicated Caribbean Ku-band beam -- and new mobile platform -- local satcom Internet companies like Caribbetech and mobile services like KVH have new opportunities to pursue.

About a week after Labor Day, ARINC introduced new Caribbean coverage for SKYLink, an in-flight broadband service for business jets:

The new Caribbean coverage area means users of the SKYLink network will be able to fly from Europe to North America, across the Caribbean, and on to Central and South America, without losing access to important e-mail or Internet applications. To encourage customers to take part in the coverage tests, ARINC Direct suspended roaming charges in the new region through July 21, 2008. Customer feedback was used to adjust satellite coverage and to map signal strength across the region.

The new coverage includes the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago; Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, northern Peru, northern Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana, and part of Surinam.

eXchange with service by SKYLink is the only communications system for business jets offering true broadband Internet speeds—as high as 3.5 Mbps to the aircraft. Customers have access to e-mail, corporate intranet (VPN), the Web, flat-rate Voice over IP (VoIP) global telephone service, and videoconferencing. eXchange also provides e-mail and data capability for personal Wi-Fi enabled smartphones in the cabin.

Really cool how Rockwell-Collins integrates it all:

Business travelers will experience real-time, two-way broadband connectivity with secure access to e-mail services, Internet browsing, access to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and options for Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service and videoconferencing. eXchange also enables data connectivity to select Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, such as RIM's Blackberry models 8320 and 8820, providing travelers with access to e-mail and other smartphone data services.

Thanks to the AMC-21 satellite's dedicated Caribbean Ku-band beam -- and new mobile platform -- local satcom Internet companies like Caribbetech and mobile services like KVH have new opportunities to pursue.

It's hard to believe for some of us who think of dial-up internet as a thing of the past, but up to 10 million Americans who live in our nation's most remote places still don't have the option of DSL or cable internet.

But dial up won't suffice in today's age of YouTube and World of Warcraft, so what to do?

The answer is satellite broadband Internet. 

We've written in the past about several of the players in the market, such as Wild Blue, HughesNet, and Spacenet's Starband.  But today we want to focus on SkyWay USA, which touts itself as "rural America's low-cost satellite provider."

For just $49 in equipment costs (after a rebate) and a monthly basic subscription of $29.95, you can be up and running with SkyWay USA in a matter of days. Installation is so easy, according to this press release (caution if you're still on dial-up: opens in PDF) that Skyway claims they've even had a 69 year old grandmother install the system.

So how does it work?

Skyways use a hybrid or combination model, using your phone line for sending commands (upload) and satellite for content (download).

For capacity, they use Echostar Fixed Satellite Services -- at least according to MarketWatch. (On their own website, SkyWay says it is partnering with SES Americom.)

FSS is the division of EchoStar that uses DISH Network's excess capacity. Dean Olmstead,  who was behind the AMERICOM2Home concept, notes that SkyWay USA will be using both the Ku- and Ka-band capacity of Echostar FSS.  

It's hard to believe for some of us who think of dial-up internet as a thing of the past, but up to 10 million Americans who live in our nation's most remote places still don't have the option of DSL or cable internet.

But dial up won't suffice in today's age of YouTube and World of Warcraft, so what to do?

The answer is satellite broadband Internet. 

We've written in the past about several of the players in the market, such as Wild Blue, HughesNet, and Spacenet's Starband.  But today we want to focus on SkyWay USA, which touts itself as "rural America's low-cost satellite provider."

For just $49 in equipment costs (after a rebate) and a monthly basic subscription of $29.95, you can be up and running with SkyWay USA in a matter of days. Installation is so easy, according to this press release (caution if you're still on dial-up: opens in PDF) that Skyway claims they've even had a 69 year old grandmother install the system.

So how does it work?

Skyways use a hybrid or combination model, using your phone line for sending commands (upload) and satellite for content (download).

For capacity, they use Echostar Fixed Satellite Services -- at least according to MarketWatch. (On their own website, SkyWay says it is partnering with SES Americom.)

FSS is the division of EchoStar that uses DISH Network's excess capacity. Dean Olmstead,  who was behind the AMERICOM2Home concept, notes that SkyWay USA will be using both the Ku- and Ka-band capacity of Echostar FSS.  

Qualcomm is teaming up with SkyTerra’s Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) and ICO Global Communications to integrate satellite communications into mass-market cellular handsets, Wireless Week reports:

Under the agreement, Qualcomm will integrate satellite and cellular communication technology by developing a satellite protocol and including it in the firmware of select Qualcomm multimode baseband chips.  Qualcomm also plans to support the L- and S-Band frequencies, in which MSV and ICO operate, in select RF processors.

In essence, the same mobile chipsets at the heart of wireless devices will let handset makers produce satellite-capable devices at comparable scale and cost.

I guess this might mean the end of the "can you hear me now?" commercials, eh?

The quality of the players in this venture (no pun intended) bode well for its ultimate outcome. Qualcomm developed its satellite-based asset-tracking service, OmniTRACS, years before GPS technology became commercially available. OmniTRACS  is what's inside those little white domes you see on on Sears trucks.

Here's a video of how it works: 

Qualcomm is also working on the Google Android phone, which is supported by the Android open-source operating system and intended as a major competitor to the Apple iPhone:

Qualcomm is likely to face stiff competition in the future from chipmakers who want in on the Android action. 

Perhaps we'll see similar functionality as what's found in the Thuraya system, with the Android switching between GSM and satellite as required?

Time will tell.

Qualcomm is teaming up with SkyTerra’s Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) and ICO Global Communications to integrate satellite communications into mass-market cellular handsets, Wireless Week reports:

Under the agreement, Qualcomm will integrate satellite and cellular communication technology by developing a satellite protocol and including it in the firmware of select Qualcomm multimode baseband chips.  Qualcomm also plans to support the L- and S-Band frequencies, in which MSV and ICO operate, in select RF processors.

In essence, the same mobile chipsets at the heart of wireless devices will let handset makers produce satellite-capable devices at comparable scale and cost.

I guess this might mean the end of the "can you hear me now?" commercials, eh?

The quality of the players in this venture (no pun intended) bode well for its ultimate outcome. Qualcomm developed its satellite-based asset-tracking service, OmniTRACS, years before GPS technology became commercially available. OmniTRACS  is what's inside those little white domes you see on on Sears trucks.

Here's a video of how it works: 

Qualcomm is also working on the Google Android phone, which is supported by the Android open-source operating system and intended as a major competitor to the Apple iPhone:

Qualcomm is likely to face stiff competition in the future from chipmakers who want in on the Android action. 

Perhaps we'll see similar functionality as what's found in the Thuraya system, with the Android switching between GSM and satellite as required?

Time will tell.